UMUC Achiever Magazine 2018

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE | 2018

The Art of Teaching ONLINE, ON-SITE, AND ON THE ROAD

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 1 | ACHIEVER

CONTENTS

FEATURES

10 THE TEACHER OF TOMORROW

BY GIL KLEIN UMUC faculty discuss what it means to teach and how the role of the teacher is evolving in the 21st century.

16 ON THE ROAD

BY GIL KLEIN

UMUC’s traveling faculty reflect on the triumphs—and trials—of being

a portable professor.

20 THE ART AND SCIENCE

OF TEACHING ONLINE

BY GIL KLEIN

Conversations with four UMUC faculty

who have mastered the craft.

NEWS AND UPDATES 2 Peter Smith’s Book Charts Path in the “Blizzard” of Higher Ed Change 2 UMUC Premieres History Documentary 3 The Making of Over There 4 UMUC’s Cyber at the Crossroads Symposium Warns that Hackers are Winning 4 Open Educational Resources Summit Draws Big Crowd 4 UMUC Hosts Its First Winter Commencement December 2017

6 2009 Alumnus David Welch’s Gift Supports Pillars of Strength 6 New York Times and Washington Post Executive Editors Talk About Journalism in the Time of Trump 7 Alan Drimmer Joins UMUC as Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer 8 UMUC Is the Answer on Jeopardy!

8 Nurturing a Culture of Academic Integrity in the Classroom and Beyond

BACK OF THE BOOK

5 UMUC Ballroom Named for “Great Citizen-Soldier” Gen. John W. Vessey Jr.

25 Class Notes

5 Medal of Honor Recipient Talks About His Next Mission

28 Faculty Kudos

6 First Class of Prince George’s 3D Scholars Launched in Fall 2017

30 On the Cover: Seven Pioneers of Maryland

Higher Education

ACHIEVER | 2 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

10

16

20

Dear Friend: FACULTY REPRESENT THE HEART AND SOUL OF EVERY UNIVERSITY, and in this issue of Achiever, we pay tribute to the more than 4,500 educators who teach, guide, mentor, and support our students in Maryland, across the country, and around the world.

We honor their history of service, including that of the original seven faculty members (see p. 30) who appear on our cover and who traveled overseas in October 1949 to bring an education within reach for U.S. troops stationed in post-war Germany.

We share their unique insights and perspectives in feature stories that explore the attributes of the teacher of tomorrow, uncover the secrets of success in an online environment, and discuss the triumphs and trials of life as a portable professor.

We look forward to a bright academic future under the leadership of Dr. Alan Drimmer, our new senior vice president and chief academic officer who brings to UMUC stellar academic credentials along with more than two decades of experience as a leader and innovator with a track record of improving access, retention, and the quality of higher education for nontraditional students.

I hope you enjoy reading in this issue the stories of those who teach our 90,000 students online, on-site, and on the road. I believe you will find their insights thought-provoking and their commitment to student success inspiring.

I invite you to reflect on the many ways that educators have helped to shape and enrich your life, and I thank you, as always, for your interest and belief in our university and our mission.

Sincerely,

Javier Miyares President University of Maryland University College

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 1 | ACHIEVER

NEWS & UPDATES PRESIDENT Javier Miyares SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS, AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Freedman EDITOR Chip Cassano ART DIRECTOR AND PHOTO EDITOR Cynthia Friedman CONTRIBUTING WRITER Gil Klein PRODUCTION MANAGER Scott Eury Call 301-985-7200 with comments and suggestions, or e-mail chip.cassano@umuc.edu.

University of Maryland University College subscribes to a policy of equal education and ­employment opportunities.

ECO BOX Achiever is printed on forest-friendly Sterling Silk Text and Sterling Silk Cover FSC® certified paper.

PAPER REQUIREMENTS: 29,652 lbs.

Using this combination of papers saves the following: ­T REES: 30 TOTAL ENERGY: 13,000,000 BTUs PURCHASED ENERGY: 1,000,000 BTUs GREENHOUSE GASES: 2,556 lbs. CO2

EQV.

WASTEWATER: 13,860 gallons SOLID WASTE: 928 lbs.

Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Defense Paper Calculator. FSC® is not responsible for any calculations on saving resources by choosing this paper.

Peter Smith’s Book Charts Path in the “Blizzard” of Higher Ed Change Peter Smith, UMUC’s Orkand Endowed Chair and Professor of Innovative Practices in Higher Education, has published a how-to book that offers adult learners a roadmap for higher education success in the digital era.

The book, Free-Range Learning in the Digital Age: The Emerging Revolution in College, Career, and Education, questions the underpinnings of higher education that have limited who can get a degree and predicts a coming revolution that will change academia but whose career has smacked

to its core. head-on into what we might According to Smith, what call the parchment ceiling— ties up so many adult learners the lack of a college degree.” in getting ahead in life is their For more about the book, visit slow progress to get through rethinkinghighereducation.net. courses that teach them things they have already learned on the job or through other life UMUC Premieres experiences. Yet employers History Documentary demand a college degree as UMUC’s rich history of globeentrée to a job. trotting faculty came to life Jan. This book is written for 30 with the premiere of a docupeople who have struggled to mentary that follows the uniget a college degree and find versity’s seven-decade mission themselves stuck in dead-end of educating military personnel jobs because they don’t have stationed overseas. the necessary academic creden Over There: The Adventures tials—even though they have of Maryland’s Traveling Faculty the requisite knowledge. follows the path of Maryland’s It also targets people in the higher education establishment, offering both a warning Faculty and a roadmap for finding member Hugo their way in the disruptive Keesing world that awaits. taught for Norman R. Augustine, a longUMUC in time leader in the American Vietnam. aerospace industry and a member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, calls this book “a must read for anyone who has gained a host of skills and experience in life

ACHIEVER | 2 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Peter Smith, UMUC Orkand Endowed Chair and Professor of Innovative Practices in Higher Education.

“Academic Foreign Legion,” who adopted “Have Syllabus Will Travel” as their motto and hopped from military base to military base, sometimes in war zones, to offer college classes to the troops.

Produced by Emmy-winning filmmaker Lauren Cardillo, the documentary includes interviews with more than 60 faculty, administrators, and alumni, coupled with historic video and still photographs to tell UMUC’s unique story.

“It’s the tale of a great adventure, and it is so much more than that—a story of innovation and change, of vision and courage, of service and sacrifice by

THE MAKING OF OVER THERE

BY HANNAH PARKER Special to Achiever magazine those who lived it,” said UMUC President Javier Miyares during his introduction at the screening. “Perhaps most of all, it is a call to action, a reminder to all of the role of higher education and how a willingness to learn and grow can change lives— and change the world in positive and lasting ways.”

The documentary opens with a boat trip by veteran professors on the Rhine-Neckar river at Heidelberg, Germany, the birthplace of Maryland’s overseas program, then hopscotches around the world allowing faculty members, administrators, and former students to tell their stories of teaching and learning—sometimes under harrowing conditions.

In the film, Lisa Henkel, vice president of operations and planning at UMUC, relates a gripping account of a rocket attack on the U.S. Army base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, during a UMUC graduation ceremony, which, in seconds, transformed celebrating students and speakers into soldiers and generals.

“For a filmmaker, finding a story like this is like striking gold,” said Cardillo during a panel discussion after the documentary’s screening.

“Here I could tell the story of this legacy of people who got themselves from country to country—every eight weeks— in the days before faxes and cellphones and computers.

Somehow it all worked.”

John Golembe and former UMUC Vice President Julian Jones, both trained as historians, said they were aware, even as it happened, that UMUC was making history with its groundbreaking overseas program.

“We were constantly thinking about how we could preserve this as history,” said Jones.

IN 1949, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (UMUC)—at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense— sent seven professors overseas to teach American troops stationed Producer Lauren Cardillo (left), with former UMUC in postwar Europe. faculty member and documentary contributor Nancy Derr, It was a bold and unconat the UMUC premiere of Over there, January 30, 2018. ventional move, and the response nearly swamped the The first cut was over an hour long, said fledgling institution, which was then still a Cardillo, far from the goal of 26 minutes. “We subsidiary of the University of Maryland were going to either have snippets of every College of Education. story, or longer pieces of five or six stories,” More than 1,800 students enrolled—three Cardillo explained. They opted for the latter. times what administrators expected—and a Because those stories spanned decades new class of “traveling professors” began a and took place all over the globe, the project journey that continues to this day. presented a unique challenge to Cardillo.

Now UMUC, the largest online public “We couldn’t just go out and shoot for university in the United States, has produced most of it,” she said. Instead, she had to a documentary, Over There: The Adventures of comb through material from archives and Maryland’s Traveling Faculty, that first aired on even draw on materials provided by the Maryland Public Television on April 15, 2018, faculty themselves. and in primetime on April 18.

The team premiered the finished docu The making of Over There began in October mentary at a screening on January 30, 2018, 2013 at a reunion in Adelphi, Maryland, of the at UMUC’s administrative headquarters in Overseas Marylanders Association (OMA), a Adelphi, Maryland. The guest list included group of current and former faculty and staff faculty, staff, alumni, and other VIPs—many from UMUC’s overseas division. current and former traveling faculty among In October 2016, at another reunion—this them. Cardillo admitted to being nervous, one in Heidelberg, Germany—producer but she need not have worried; the story Lauren Cardillo and UMUC Assistant Vice enthralled the capacity crowd.

President for Media Relations Bob Ludwig Afterward, Freedman interviewed Cardillo traveled overseas to continue documenting the and documentary contributors Julian Jones, Lisa stories these former faculty had to tell.

Henkel, Rich Blewitt, Paula Harbecke, and John “We were extremely fortunate to get Golembe. Audience members asked questions, Lauren,” said Michael Freedman, UMUC’s interspersed with stories of their own experisenior vice president for Communications, ences teaching overseas. who served as executive producer of the “This was a wonderful evening, a truly inspirproject. Cardillo had already produced other ing look at an amazing chapter in the history of documentaries, winning over 30 honors, Maryland higher education, and a fitting tribute including national and local Emmy awards. to the men and women who have touched so Her work had been featured on Discovery, many lives through UMUC’s service to military PBS, CNN, The History Channel, and elsestudents overseas,” said UMUC President Javier where. The Emmy Award-winning documenMiyares. “Kudos to all who worked so hard tarian was more than happy to work with at making this documentary, and our sincere Freedman on the project. thanks to the faculty members who lived this Said Cardillo, “Finding a story no one had fascinating story.” told? You’ve hit gold.” _______________________________________________ The project spanned four years and yielded Hannah Parker worked in UMUC’s Office of more than 40 hours of interviews. In fact, one Communications during the 2017–18 school year of the biggest challenges Cardillo faced was while a senior at Centennial High School in Ellicott City, Maryland, participating in the intern/mentor program of deciding how many of those interviews to highthe Howard County Public School System Gifted light in the documentary. and Talented program.

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 3 | ACHIEVER

NEWS & UPDATES

“We were almost thinking of it as the Greeks thought about history. You want to preserve the great deeds of people in the past to educate those in the present and future. That is what I feel this documentary has achieved.”

To watch Over There, as aired on Maryland Public Television, visit umuc.edu/overseasmd.

UMUC’s Cyber at the Crossroads Symposium Warns that Hackers Are Winning Twenty years after federal investigators revealed the menace of internet hacking, it remains an existential threat to the nation, and speakers at UMUC’s fall cybersecurity symposium on October 10, 2017, warned that we need an effort on par with the race to the moon, of the 1950s and 1960s, in order to get ahead of the hackers.

“Whether we like it or not, we are at war, and we are not winning,” said Retired Army Maj. Gen. Dave Bryan, president and CEO of Bryan Business Management and Technology. “Every leader in cybersecurity has to deliver the message that this is important to the nation’s survival.”

The daylong symposium, co-sponsored by UMUC and the National Security Agency’s Cyber Center for Education and Innovation, attracted hundreds of cyber security professionals and educators to talk about what needs to be done to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber attack. Many panelists concluded that incremental change is simply not enough to keep up with the hackers.

Rob Joyce, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, said finding the right mix of

Cyber at the Crossroads was co-sponsored by UMUC and the NSA Cyber Center for Education and Innovation.

regulation and technology to protect cyber systems is not easy. Too much regulation or the wrong kind of regulation can make systems less secure rather than more.

At the same time, stories about hacking and cyber theft have yet to “sink in” for the American people and their leaders, according to several panelists. Americans worry about the government gaining access to their personal information even as they gladly give it away in exchange for a discount coupon on the internet, one said.

“We are not angry enough at this point,” said Retired Adm. William O. Studeman. “We are still patch and pray. We are jeopardizing our future. There must be some form of national mobilization.”

Open Educational Resources Summit Draws Big Crowd More than 500 people crowded UMUC’s summit on free open educational resources (OERs) in December to talk about eliminating textbooks— and potentially saving students tens of thousands of dollars

ACHIEVER | 4 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

over the course of their academic careers.

UMUC has led the way nationwide by eliminating most textbooks in undergraduate classes in the fall of 2015 and in graduate courses in 2017.

“At first, some referred to OERs as ‘no cost,’ which might have been an oversimplification,” UMUC President Javier Miyares told the gathering.

“Still, the financial savings to students have been significant, and the shift to OERs is wholly consistent with our ongoing quest to provide a quality education that is both accessible and affordable.”

The summit was designed to help other Maryland institutions understand what it will

Miss USA 2016 Deshauna Barber

take to implement OERs at their schools.

Panelist said that many students never buy assigned textbooks, simply because they cannot afford them, and this hampers how instructors can teach their classes. Planning courses with free resources would change that, and several speakers said that educational materials placed in the public domain allow professors to modify and tailor them to their specific students.

UMUC Hosts Its First Winter Commencement December 2018 Families and friends of graduates in the Class of 2017 gath-

For the latest news and updates about UMUC, visit the Global Media Center at globalmedia.umuc.edu.

ered on December 16 to celebrate at UMUC’s first-ever winter commencement. More than 1,200 graduates marched in two separate ceremonies at the Xfinity Center in College Park.

In all, the Class of 2017 comprised students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 24 countries.

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, who represents Maryland’s 8th District, presented the keynote address at the first ceremony and asked the graduates to stay engaged in the political process while seeking out the truth.

“Facts are stubborn things,” he said. “We all have an obligation to dig deeper, to figure out what is true and what is not true … and we must all do a better job of listening to the opinions of others and questioning our own assumptions and premises.”

Miss USA 2016 Deshauna Barber, who earned a master’s degree from UMUC, offered the keynote at the second ceremony. The first active duty military officer to win the title of Miss USA, Barber encouraged the graduates to overcome any failures with greater determination to succeed.

“Do not fear failure,” she said. “But please be terrified of regret. Giving up is the birth of regret.”

UMUC Ballroom Named for “Great Citizen-Soldier” Gen. John W. Vessey Jr. UMUC dedicated a ballroom in the Conference Center at its administrative headquarters in Adelphi, Maryland, to the late Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., heralding him as its most illustrious alumnus, a remarkable military leader, and a

tireless education advocate.

“Gen. Vessey’s career and service to our country are legendary,” said UMUC President Javier Miyares during a special Veterans Day ceremony November 10. “General Vessey’s commitment to the men and women who wear the uniform of our country stands as a constant reminder

of the importance of our mission, the power of education to change lives, and as an inspiration to all who aspire to lead with integrity, courage, and grace.”

Vessey is the only chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who began his military career as an enlisted man. His rise through the ranks was accompanied by his belief in the power of education as a means of advancing both personally and professionally.

President Ronald Reagan appointed Vessey the 10th chairman of the Joint Chiefs in June 1982, a post he held for three years. In 1995, Vessey was appointed as UMUC’s first chairman of its Board of Visitors. He died on August 18, 2016, at the age of 94.

UMUC leaders joined members of the military and of Vessey's family to dedicate the Gen. John W. Vessey Jr. Ballroom.

Medal of Honor Recipient Talks About His Next Mission Florent Groberg, a graduate of UMUC who completed his degree while recovering from wounds suffered in Afghanistan, spoke at a university gathering in

December 2017 about how he overcame his near suicidal depression to open a new chapter in his life helping wounded veterans.

Talking about his recently released book, 8 seconds of Courage: A Soldier’s Story from Immigrant to the Medal of Honor, Groberg recounted how his life

(left) Medal of Honor recipient Florent Groberg

WWW.UMUC.EDU| |55| | ACHIEVER WWW.UMUC.EDU

NEWS & UPDATES

UMUC President Javier Miyares (seated, left) with leaders of Prince George�s Community College, Prince George�s County Public Schools, and members of the Prince George�s 3D Scholars program.

was turned around by a visit from a severely wounded Army staff sergeant, Travis Mills.

Mills, just four months before Groberg was wounded, lost all four limbs in an IED attack in Afghanistan.

“He came along as a mentor when I really needed one,” Groberg said. “In 15 minutes, he took me from this very dark place and opened the door and showed me the light.”

Mills convinced him that his survival meant that he had new responsibilities and opportunities in life that few people understand.

“Now you have the responsibility to go out and earn the right to be on this Earth—to honor the brothers who did not come home—and do some good,” Mills told him.

With as many as 20 veterans committing suicide each day, Groberg now is working with funding from the Boeing Corp. to help not only wounded warriors, but also their families and caregivers.

“If you help the veterans and you help the families, the chances of success go up a thousand times,” he said.

First Class of Prince George’s 3D Scholars Launched in Fall 2017 A new scholarship program that will allow Prince George’s County students to earn a UMUC bachelor’s degree for less than $10,000 began in September 2017 with the first high school students taking college level courses. The scholarships allow eligible students to earn dual credit toward a high school diploma, an associate degree at Prince George’s Community College, and ultimately a UMUC bachelor’s degree. Scholarship recipients eventually earn three

degrees, making the initial 18 participants “3D scholars.”

For some students, the college degrees could be free.

“The PG3D Scholarship program is college affordability on steroids,” said Maryland Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-College Park), a former member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, who authored the state’s early college law.

2009 Alumnus David Welch’s Gift Supports Pillars of Strength David Welch, a Maryland businessman and UMUC

alumnus, donated $25,000 to Pillars of Strength (umuc.edu/pillarsofstrength) to grant scholarships to volunteer caregivers of wounded American service members, allowing them to pursue a UMUC degree, all expenses paid.

Welch, who owns Welch and Rushe, a family mechanical contracting company in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, said he was approached by Richard Blewitt, whose Blewitt Foundation established the Pillars of Strength program.

Since 2013, Pillars of Strength has offered full scholarships to people who put their own lives on hold to care for severely wounded veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last year, five scholarships were awarded, bringing to 15 the total granted to date. Six more are expected this year.

“These young men and women who are caregivers are basically giving up their careers to help someone who has come back wounded and needing help,” Welch said.

“These scholarships are helping these caregivers get their life back after making such a sacrifice.”

Blewitt said Welch’s $25,000 donation will allow one recipient to get a full scholarship to complete a four-year undergraduate degree. He said he expects this donation will be a catalyst for many more.

New York Times and Washington Post Executive Editors Talk About Journalism in the Time of Trump Keith Hauk, associate vice president for Veterans Initiatives (left) with alumnus David Welch.

ACHIEVER | 6 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Reporting on President Donald Trump can be a challenge, as

he often deems critical stories “fake news,” but the executive editors of two of the nation’s leading newspapers told a National Press Club audience recently that it can be done, but only by maintaining high standards.

“If you tell the truth, if you’re accurate, if you’re aggressive, and you’re fair, and you hold onto your principles, I think in the end, that’s the only way you can cover him,” New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told moderator Marvin Kalb on the latest edition of The Kalb Report, which is co-produced by UMUC. For Marty Baron, the Washington Post’s executive editor, the mission of the newspaper in covering the

every single day, we wouldn’t be able to do our jobs,” Baron said. “If that’s what he wants to do, that’s what he wants to do.

We know what we want to do.”

In June 2018, this edition of

The Kalb Report was honored with the Gold World Medal in the New York Festivals International Radio Awards competition in the category of Best Talk/Interview Special.

Dr. Alan Drimmer

vative initiatives and bringing them to scale, and upholding Alan Drimmer Joins the academic standards set by UMUC as Senior Vice national, regional, and professional accrediting bodies, as well President and Chief as by UMUC and the University Academic Officer System of Maryland.

UMUC named Dr. Alan “Alan Drimmer truly underDrimmer senior vice presistands UMUC—our entrepredent and chief academic neurial and innovative spirit officer, effective April 16, and our historical mission of 2018. Drimmer is an accomserving adult students in plished academic leader Maryland and around the world,” said UMUC President Javier Miyares. “He brings to UMUC a unique blend of scholarship and leadership of large, complex academic organizations, and we look forward to the rich perspectives he will bring to our senior leadership team.”

Drimmer spent (Left to right) Dean Baquet, Marty Baron, and Kalb Report moderator more than seven Marvin Kalb at the National Press Club. years in key leadership roles with president has not changed.

Apollo Education Group, and innovator with more “Truth may be elusive,” he first as president of Western than two decades of said, “but there is such a thing International University from experience in improving as truth. It’s not just a matter 2009 to 2011 and then as proaccess, retention, and the of personal opinion. And our vost and executive vice presiquality of higher education job is to come in every day, do dent of University of Phoenix for nontraditional students. our job, do our work, and try until 2013. He served as chief

In this role, Drimmer will to determine the truth.” academic officer of the entire lead the university’s global The president’s criticism of Apollo Education Group from academic operations—develnews coverage, said Baron, 2013 to 2016 and led muloping goals that align with has become repetitive. tiple initiatives that involved the university’s strategic plan, “If we were to react to this adaptive and competencyexploring and developing inno-

based learning, analytics to improve student success and operational efficiencies, as well as student motivation projects to improve retention. He served more recently as chief executive of PromotED, an education startup that helps employers position personalized coaching, education, and technology as employee benefits to reduce frontline turnover and absenteeism.

“I am deeply honored to work with President Miyares and his dedicated and entrepreneurial faculty and staff, as well as with the broader university community to help students transform their lives through education,” said Drimmer. “Each encounter I have had with the UMUC community has underscored the awareness and responsibility for carrying out the university mission with adult learners, and this is reflected in the way the school develops curriculum, teaches students, and supports them during their trajectory from an education to a successful career.”

Drimmer holds a BA, MA, and PhD in political science from the University of Chicago, as well as an MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

He was a National Security Fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and won a prestigious Derek Bok Undergraduate Teaching Award at Harvard College. In addition, he was a Research Fellow at the American University in Cairo’s Center for Arabic Study Abroad, a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and he attended the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris.

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 7 | ACHIEVER

NEWS & UPDATES

NURTURING A CULTURE OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND

BY CHIP CASSANO

UMUC Is the Answer on Jeopardy!

University of Maryland University College was featured as an “answer” on the popular quiz show Jeopardy! on April 12.

UMUC’s mention came during a quarterfinal round of the show’s annual College Championship.

Rebecca Rosenthal, a sophomore at Swarthmore College, chose the “College Slashes” category for $600 and up came: “In 2015–16 the University of Maryland University College got rid of these—course materials are now online and free.”

However, it was quarterfinalist Carsen Smith, a senior at Vanderbilt University, who buzzed in first with her correct answer in question form, “What are textbooks?”

UMUC became the first major university in the country to eliminate publisher textbooks, replacing them with open educational resources (OERs)— digital materials available on the Internet—in most of its online classes, potentially saving students tens of thousands of dollars over the course of their degree programs.

The transition to OERs began with The Undergraduate School in the fall of the 2014–15 academic year; The Graduate

School completed the same process by the end of the 2016–17 academic year.

“Turning such a vast university into a textbook-free zone, though, has been no small task,” said Thomas C. Bailey, now vice dean of science programs, in an August 2015 article on the UMUC Global Media Center.

“It has almost gotten to the point where textbooks are as expensive as the cost of a class. That becomes a barrier when students are shelling out that much money to try to better themselves or get [ahead] in the work world.”

The change was prompted both by the rising cost of textbooks and opportunities now available to find and access peer-reviewed content and information in specialized databases and other digital sources, the article said.

National media outlets took notice, as did the higher education community, and the Open Education Consortium recognized UMUC with its 2015 President’s Award, granted to an individual or institution that shows exceptional leadership and commitment to open-source education. G

ACHIEVER | 8 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

ALL TOO OFTEN, DISCUSSIONS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY shift to a narrow focus on cheating and other forms of academic misconduct. Dr. Douglas Harrison, associate dean in UMUC’s Graduate School, wants that to change.

“When we talk about academic integrity, we are really talking about a set of highly desirable, socially beneficial, professionally necessary dispositions, characteristics, attitudes, behaviors, and responses,” said Harrison, who chairs UMUC’s Academic Integrity Work Group (AIWG).

“We live them out every day, and our curriculum engages them with students across the diversity of programs that we offer.”

Established in April 2017, AIWG is charged with developing a philosophy and approach to academic integrity that will guide decision-making and nurture a culture of integrity across the university. And while deterring and combatting academic dishonesty and misconduct certainly figure into that objective, they are by no means the cornerstone.

“Academic integrity is so much more than the absence of academic misconduct, and that is a concept that we are really trying to reinforce culturally,” said Harrison.

That holistic view is consistent with the stated mission of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), of which UMUC is a member. Founded in 1992, ICAI initially focused on combating cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty in higher education. That mission “has since expanded to include the cultivation of cultures of integrity in academic communities throughout the world.”

From the outset, AIGW adopted ICAI’s definition of integrity as “the commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage.”

Guided by that definition, the work group drafted a statement of philosophy that affirms UMUC’s commitment to teaching and learning with integrity and outlines the principles that underpin a culture of integrity. It identifies integrity as the foundation of the university’s vision, as defined in its Strategic Plan, delivering “career-relevant programs that build the skills, competencies and capabilities our students need to realize their professional aspirations.”

In fact, said Harrison, professional relevance is one of the keys to fostering a culture of integrity.

“The research and our own experience bear out that students are much less likely to engage in dishonest behaviors— and much more likely to engage meaningfully and with integrity—when we have immersed them in applied teaching and learning experiences that align the outcome that they are seeking, the learning objective that we’re aiming for, and the teaching and learning process that we use to get there,” said Harrison. “That is good teaching and learning, and integrity is sort of baked into it when we get it right.

Students have to engage in high-order tasks that will require them to be courageous and responsible and respectful and honest and all of those things.”

Harrison and AIWG have gone to great lengths to make the process both inclusive and comprehensive. Drafting the philosophy statement alone involved surveying some 5,100 faculty and 145,000 students, with input and feedback from stakeholders across the university, from the University System of Maryland, and throughout higher education.

Other factors add to the challenge. Mobile and online technologies continue to evolve, posing new challenges around security and identity verification. Concepts of fair use and understanding of the academic writing process can vary depending on cultural and academic backgrounds. And strategies already in place for encouraging or safeguarding academic integrity may not have been assessed for effectiveness or scalability in this new landscape.

Fostering a culture of integrity also demands a willingness to reevaluate preconceptions, assess current trends, adapt to new developments, and more.

“Integrity is something that cuts across platforms, deliveries, and modalities, whether you are a kindergartner or a doctoral student,” said Harrison. “It means that we have to be and want to be responsive to how developments in both learning science and pedagogy—as well as the different technologies and platforms that evolve—can allow us to engage students meaningfully in the teaching and learning process.”

Guided by its statement of philosophy, AIWG is now focused on developing recommendations of comprehensive and integrated approaches to fostering academic integrity in four general areas: (1) curriculum design, teaching, learning, and assessment; (2) faculty development and

“

When we talk about academic integrity, we are really talking about a set of highly desirable, socially beneficial, professionally necessary dispositions, characteristics, attitudes, behaviors, and responses.”

—DR. DOUGLAS HARRISON

support; (3) integrity-related technology resources and tools; and (4) policy and processes for handling violations of academic integrity.

The group has developed a promising tool—an integrity values matrix (IVM)—that is already being used by curriculum developers to determine where, how, and how well assignments, courses, and programs engage students with core integrity values. In a pilot involving a graduate leadership course, for instance, courage was associated with whistleblower laws; fairness and responsibility with an ethical approach to the reorganization of a company; and respect with issues of diversity and inclusion in workplace leadership.

“The goal of the IVM project is to develop a framework for explicitly identifying and recognizing where curriculum and instruction are already richly engaged in integrity values education,” Harrison said, in a March 2018 presentation to the International Conference on Academic Integrity. “If we can document and celebrate where we’re already getting it right, we can hold up exemplars as models to design toward.”

It is a lofty goal, but given its importance, one that Harrison and the AIWG willingly embrace.

“Integrity is not something that you stop and do and then go back to teaching and learning,” said Harrison.

“It is something you are always doing if you are doing it right.” G

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 9 | ACHIEVER

THE TEACHER OF TOMORROW

ACHIEVER | 10 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

With student demographics shifting and the internet at our fingertips, UMUC faculty discuss what it means to teach and how the role of the teacher is evolving in the 21st century.

BY GIL KLEIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN LUND

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 11 | ACHIEVER

“

One of my favorite

things about online

GRO TORSETHAUGEN

education is the

use information. Teachers will use more project-based learning to help WAS PERPLEXED. flexibility, both for students make connections between course content and the real world, A student in her biology lab students and instructors. and faculty and course developers class had submitted a data set will use technology to make online We can log in to the classrooms more interactive and from an experiment designed engaging.” online classroom to For learning environments like to measure the effect of pH biology labs, Torsethaugen sees two levels on the germination of interact with each other potential approaches—either handson individual exercises where sturadish seeds. The assignment and get the coursework dents try to recreate the laboratory called for students to add vinenvironment at home, or virtual labs done at any time of the where they conduct experiments as egar to one dish, baking soda simulations. There are advantages day or night and from to another, water to a third— and disadvantages to both.

For in-home labs, students have as a control—and compare anywhere in the world. to purchase kits that include necessary supplies like gloves, safety the growth rate for seeds in glasses, and plastic aprons. The stu—GRO TORSETHAUGEN each of the dishes. dents take pictures as they conduct “One student had this weird their experiments, which sometimes graph where the plants were germibecome family projects, with kids nating nicely and then suddenly on acting as lab assistants and showing day four there was zero germinaup in the pictures. tion,” Torsethaugen said. When Virtual labs cost less, are accessiasked, the student explained that the ble from any computer, and students dishes were on her windowsill, and can repeat them as needed to correct her cat had knocked them down. errors and reinforce learning. But She had had to start the experiment there are tradeoffs. over; hence, the abrupt shift on her “As a biology major who worked in a lab, . . . I am a seven-day graph. big fan of the hands-on,” Torsethaugen said, adding that Such are the challenges of teaching in the 21st century, as there is much to be said for seeing something with your more universities embrace online education and explore new own eyes, touching it, experiencing failure, and learning instructional strategies, seeking constantly to contain costs, firsthand the importance of measuring precisely, thinking improve learning outcomes, and adjust to the needs of stuabout sample size, establishing a control, and so on. dents from increasingly diverse demographic backgrounds.

The key is finding balance and committing to those Torsethaugen, who studied the effect of ozone pollution approaches that work best, said Torsethaugen. on plants on the way to earning her PhD from “One of my favorite things about online education is the the University of Oslo, has been teaching online for flexibility, both for students and instructors,” she said. “We UMUC for a decade and has seen courses and delivery can log in to the online classroom to interact with each strategies evolve. other and get the coursework done at any time of the day “I believe the role of faculty will continue to evolve away or night and from anywhere in the world. Students can get from the traditional lecturer, or deliverer of content, to that a lot of individual help if they take advantage of the access of a learning guide or mentor,” said Torsethaugen. “Students they have to their professors.” have access to so much information that teaching will be less For Stephanie Carter, who teaches cybersecurity, maintainabout providing information and more about giving students ing relevance is critical to success in the modern classroom, the skills they need to locate, critically evaluate, and properly and that means being comfortable with constant change, as ACHIEVER | 12 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

bad actors develop new methods of attack and cybersecurity university for taking potentially dry material—such as the professionals respond with new defensive strategies. theory and practice of public relations—and turning it into a Trying to master every aspect of the field would actually course that captures students’ imaginations. be counterproductive.

Professionally, Plotnick has more than 20 years of experi “You won’t ever sleep. You won’t be able to do anything ence in public relations, most recently as the founder of else but research,” said Carter. “Trying to be a jack-of-allCricom, LLC, which provides issues and crisis communicatrades, you will be so burned out, you won’t be able to tion consulting services. That gives him practical experience teach anybody anything.” to bring to the classroom.

Instead, she focuses on risk management, and looks at all But many of his students also have practical experience, of the other facets of cybersecurity through that lens. which can present its own set of challenges.

After 20 years in the U.S. Army, Carter still consults for “I teach theory courses, and you have to make the theory the federal government and the milrelevant to people who have actual itary, and she said that being a experience,” said Plotnick. “They scholar and practitioner also helps will identify the fallacies of any theher keep up with the fast-moving ory. They will say, ‘That doesn’t changes in the field and offers her work in the real world.’ No, it access to information that others doesn’t. But that’s not the point of a who focus exclusively on scholartheory. A theory is still a foundation ship might not enjoy. on which you test what you see in And students themselves the real world.” represent a source of valuable To make a course work for students today, he said, you have to use information. up-to-the minute examples. Relying “I wasn’t in the generation that on historic cases—such as the Exxon grew up with technology,” Carter Valdez oil spill or the Union Carbide said, “but the students I am teachIf you were a fly explosion that killed thousands in ing grew up in it.” And while a India—is no longer effective. Not faculty member might be tempted on the wall in my class, only did these things happen before to stand up and pontificate, some of the students were born, but Carter added, in a field like cyberyou would see that I the communications systems that security, it isn’t unusual to find a were used in responding to these cristudent who is smarter or better am always soaking it in. ses may no longer exist. informed than the instructor.

“If you were a fly on the wall in Better examples come straight I let my students talk my class, you would see that I am from current events, Plotnick said. always soaking it in,” said Carter.

As he began a recent course, he and express their “I let my students talk and express noted a small item in the Washington their ideas freely because technolPost about a decision by the Bureau ideas freely because ogy excites them. If you don’t of Prisons to remove pork from the capitalize on that strength, you fail menu. It cited a survey saying that technology excites as a professor. They are able to pork was the least favorite food give you their perspective, and if among prisoners. them. If you don’t received, it will help add value to “That just didn’t sound right to all future classes you teach.” me,” said Plotnick. “And sure capitalize on that As more students choose to enough, in following articles Sen. study while working full time, the [Charles] Grassley [of Iowa] was strength, you fail as challenge to the professor is to demanding to see the research. The make sure the courses are relevant Pork Producers Association chimed a professor. to their lives, said Jeremy Plotnick, in with, ‘Are you telling me in any who has become well known in the population group in the United —STEPHANIE CARTER

“

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 13 | ACHIEVER

Kevin Adams may be most proud of how he has harnessed technology in his

States, people don’t like bacon?’ they hustle to complete projects in and a spokesman for the American his capstone class. This allows him classes, using Skype Muslim community said, ‘Hey, it’s to combine some of the advantages not us. We didn’t ask for this.’” of a face-to-face classroom with the and Google Hangouts It was a perfect example, conveniences of online instruction.

Plotnick said, of stakeholders “I use video teleconferencing at to conduct video attacking the misuse of bogus least once a week with the design research, and the class was able to teams—usually, between three and teleconferences with watch every step of the conflict play five people per team, and I have up out in the Post—and learn how to three teams,” said Adams. teams of students as public relations works and doesn’t With students in Asia, Maryland, work along the way. In the end, the and Europe, arranging mutually conthey hustle to complete Bureau of Prisons revoked its decivenient times usually requires clustersion, and the bureau’s public affairs ing teams by location. projects in his representative got pummeled.

Adams also closely monitors the “Going forward, educators will weekly online discussions, posting capstone class. increasingly take on the role of questions and reviewing responses. mentors who help guide students He ensures that students present in analyzing and interpreting facts, not opinion, supported by information,” said Plotnick, who research citations. sees this as the basis for critical The combination of electronic thinking and creative problemcommunication methods with more solving—the most important skills traditional teaching methods is a for students to develop. breakthrough, he said, especially in “Access to the internet makes it teaching engineering. unnecessary to ‘teach’ students facts, “I tell some of my engineering as they now have all the facts they could ever need at friends that I am teaching engineering and IT online, and their fingertips. For better or worse, teachers will need to they are always puzzled,” he said. “How can you do that? focus more of their time on helping students acquire the It’s not face-to-face and it’s not synchronous? This requires skills to determine what information is valid and what is a totally new approach.” ‘fake news.’ The amount of bogus information online is Adams praised the support that UMUC can offer to facexploding, and it is sometimes very hard to separate fact ulty members who are developing new courses and encourfrom fiction.” ages others to use it to their advantage.

Plotnick added that he sees it as “vitally important that “Some of the technology now is incredible, . . .” he said. educators help students find their own moral compass, so “We can provide students with many of the Microsoft prothat when they enter the workforce they are cognizant of grams at no cost. I have them build their projects in the ethical issues behind many business decisions.”

Microsoft Project, which is an industry standard scheduling For Kevin Adams, another long-time member of application for project management. That costs them noththe UMUC faculty, scheduling becomes key in our ing. They get to use it in the class and they can carry their increasingly wired world and demands both flexibility new skills right out into industry.” and creativity.

With information increasing in both volume and accessibility, it becomes especially important for teachers to help Adams, a graduate of MIT, has taught for UMUC since students learn to find and identify reliable sources, and 1999 and is known for pushing his students in the Master of Science in Information Technology program. He wrote the Adams advocates for UMUC’s library, a resource that he believes is still underutilized. He requires students to coninaugural course for the systems engineering IT specialization duct research there, and as the university moves away from and designed and taught four of the eight systems courses.

But he may be most proud of how he has harnessed using publisher textbooks, he has arranged for three texttechnology in his classes, using Skype and Google Hangouts books he has written to be available to students, a chapter at a time, at no cost. to conduct video teleconferences with teams of students as ACHIEVER | 14 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

“If I didn’t have the library, I couldn’t teach; I couldn’t And with urban systems everywhere challenged to do stay current,” he said. more with less, students come to class with as much or Another member of the UMUC faculty, Edwin Johnson, more baggage than they have in the past—and with more teaches history while also serving as a member of the distractions, Johnson said. The teacher of tomorrow will Maryland Commission on African American History and sometimes have to be a guidance counselor and social Culture. A graduate of Morgan State University and a longworker, as well. time higher education administrator, Johnson said that With that in mind, Johnson uses the required first-week modern teaching must include helping students who may introductions in UMUC’s online environment to dig deeper have been out of the classroom for years cope with the chaland address his students’ often unspoken fears and insecurities. lenges of higher education.

“My first academic background is in human communiJohnson said his work in admissions at Morgan State and cation,” said Johnson. “When you get into perceptions his PhD studies in African American history have fostered a and self, I understand that all adult learners have a lot of greater understanding of the correlation between socioecofears about coming back to school, whether they waited nomics, the quality of public school systems, performance on too long, [and whether] they can still finish. . . . I ask the SAT—and how all of those factors influence access to them, ‘What are your fears? What do you want to do with higher education, especially for minority populations. this degree?’ I try to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable saying, ‘I’m afraid. I’m 40 years old.

“One of the good things about higher education is that it I haven’t done anything in education in 20 years.’ I think is becoming less exclusionary,” said Johnson. “In the past, when there is a large consensus in the class, and they all higher education was for the wealthy, so they would learn realize they have some of the same fears and concerns, it how to conduct themselves in polite society. . . . If you becomes less of a deterrent.” didn’t have money or a station, you didn’t get an opportunity to get an education.”

One tremendous advantage, Johnson said, is the resourc Fortunately, the expansion of adult education now means es that UMUC makes available to students, such as the that students who missed the transiEffective Writing Center and Library tion from high school to college Services.

“I say to my students all the time, have another chance. The challenge ‘If you flunk out or drop out, it is for faculty is how best to prepare them to reenter the classroom when because you threw your hands in the so much has changed from when air and said, ‘I can’t do it.’ If you they were in high school. are looking for help, it is there and “I think that, just as higher edureadily accessible.” cation itself is becoming more accesSometimes that assistance comes sible, professors are required to do from another student—benefitting more and more to make sure that both the student who is helping and their students are ‘getting it,’ and the one who is being helped.

If you flunk out or that they get some of the services “If someone posts a question, and skill sets and remediation that [faculty] are required to respond drop out, it is because they need,” said Johnson. within 24 hours,” said Johnson.

“Back 20 or 30 years ago, a pro“Sometimes another student sees you threw your hands in fessor could say, ‘You should know the question and says, ‘Let me this. You should have learned this in assist you.’ I will check the next the air and said, ʻI can’t high school. I’m not going through day and see that the student this.’ In this day and age, you can’t answered the question, and it do it.’ If you are looking take that posture. You have to meet becomes a group effort. We’re all students where they are and take getting through this together. We for help, it is there and them where they need to be. It is have the same fears, but we are all incumbent upon you to make sure striving for the same goal, and we readily accessible. that your students get everything are going to support one another they need.” to get there.” G —EDWIN JOHNSON

“

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 15 | ACHIEVER

ON THE ROAD UMUC’s traveling faculty reflect on the triumphs— and trials—of being a portable professor.

BY GIL KLEIN

FOR MOST FACULTY AT UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (UMUC), preparing for class involves booting up a computer. For Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario, who teaches marine biology on Guam, it might include strapping on a face mask and flippers.

“The last field trip is the one everyone looks forward to,” said Plucer-Rosario.

“We charter a boat, and we go into the harbor. We do some depth sampling and we do some snorkeling to look at all of the things we have been talking about. Then we go down south to Agat, and we visit with the dolphins and the flying fish and the turtles. We watch the dolphins show off how they dance. Even most of my Navy students have never seen anything like that.”

Plucer-Rosario has lived and taught on Guam since she arrived there decades ago to study corals at the University of Guam. She has taught for

ACHIEVER | 16 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 17 | ACHIEVER

“

I am trying to

help students be selfmotivated learners, to

UMUC since 1984, and is now one to Korea to teach for UMUC. find information on of five full-time collegiate faculty and “I have come full circle in how I several adjunct faculty who teach at envisioned my career by working their own and be able the Navy base on the southern end of overseas in different countries,” the island and the Air Force base at Salinas said. “Korea is a wonderful to do something with the northern end. place, and Seoul is an exciting city.”

At UMUC, her experience is The faculty experience now is difthat knowledge. unusual, but hardly unique. While ferent than it was in the early days most UMUC students take their classof UMUC’s Europe and Asia divi —CHARLES SALINAS es online, the U.S. Department of sions, when communication and Defense also contracts with the unilogistics often presented significant versity to teach courses face-to-face on challenges. Now, modern technolomilitary bases around the world. gy offers greater flexibility even as it Every term, hundreds of faculty mempushes faculty to reevaluate their bers continue a UMUC tradition that classroom strategies. dates back to the late 1940s, relocat “The newer technology presents ing as needed to bring a college edufascinating avenues to reach stucation to servicemembers. dents,” Salinas said. “When I started Brian East and his wife, Kathy So, in education, I went into a class, I are veterans of the nomadic lifestyle. lectured, the students read the work, Born in Atlanta, East earned his undergraduate degree from took exams, and wrote a paper. That was it. It seemed to work. But now that I have to tackle unique situations, I see that Georgia State University and his PhD from Auburn University. it didn’t work so well.”

He taught English as a second language in Korea from 2001 to 2003, then returned home to Atlanta to teach at Georgia He began to experiment with assigning basic exercises as Gwinnett College. While there, he met and married his wife, homework and reserving the more challenging and interesting who was born in Korea but grew up in Georgia. The life of tasks for the classroom. traveling faculty members appealed to the couple.

“Instead of one-way communication where I am talking with In the space of three years they have taught in Korea students and they’re writing their notes and regurgitating it (twice), on Okinawa (twice), and in Germany in Stuttgart, at later on, they’re coming [to class] with some knowledge, and Panzer Kaserne, and in Bavaria. we’re using that to solve problems in the classroom,” Salinas Their daughter, Evelyn Hana, now two and a half, travels said. “For example, … we can manipulate emotions and see with them. how that changes the sympathetic nervous system with some “She picks up and moves like it’s nothing,” said East. “She basic physiological measures. That makes the classroom experihas already lived in three different countries and she has been ence much more interesting, and they are much more engaged home to visit the United States. She has spent time in eight difin class, eager to [attend].” ferent countries.”

Technology also allows faculty to serve remote sites that So, who teaches business and government courses for might otherwise remain inaccessible.

UMUC, shares her daughter’s adaptability and characterizes life “Yesterday, I was at Osan Air Base, and I was streaming down to Kunsan Air Base, which is 170 miles away,” said as a traveling faculty member as “an amazing and rewarding Salinas. “That’s not a place I could commute to even once a adventure.”

Charles Salinas, the faculty coordinator for South Korea, is week and get back. It allows us to reach those students and equally comfortable on the road and knows his way around the offer them classes that they normally would not have access to.” peninsula. A social personality psychologist by training, he With rapid technological advances in Korea and across much of Asia, fiber now connects all of the military bases and internet earned his PhD from the University of California, Riverside, connections are very fast, allowing faculty to put teleconferencthen went to teach at the American University in Bulgaria just after the fall of communism. ing technology to use in the classroom.

But after teaching at California State in Long Beach and fol Salinas also travels to the remote sites several times each year lowing his wife to the University of Alaska, Southeast, in to meet students in person while streaming those classes back to Juneau, the two decided to try something different and headed his home site.

ACHIEVER | 18 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

“Students appreciate that the instructor is taking time to visit had to roll out the program very deliberately. We had never with them,” Salinas said. “We don’t have to. We could just done it before.” teach from the face-to-face classroom and stream to them. But The program was structured on UMUC’s new project-based it’s well worth the effort to make connections with students.” learning model, which is typical of most MBA programs, and Certain challenges remain, however, despite advances in although the program is offered in a hybrid format, combining technology. Sabre rattling by North online and face-to-face instruction, Korea has put American troops on Evans spends most weekends travelhigh alert, which means less time for ing across Europe, meeting with stuclasses, and some eight-week terms dents on Saturdays and Sundays from have been shortened to seven weeks 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. or even six.

“The students are fantastic,” he “That shortens the window for said. “These are veterans, spouses, trying to accomplish the course contractors—truly global citizens. goals,” Salinas said. “It would be We are here in Europe so they have problematic if I were just trying to lived and worked overseas. They deliver the information and lecture, understand cultural differences.

The students are but I am not trying to do that.

They understand cultural context.

I am trying to help students be selfThey understand business because fantastic. These are motivated learners, to find informathey are living it. We have some tion on their own and be able to do robust discussions because they veterans, spouses, something with that knowledge.” bring so much to the table.”

Evans lives in Kaiserslautern, but Those challenges, he said, “are contractors—truly global teaching assignments regularly take part of our mission and make this him to Ramstein, Wiesbaden, job truly rewarding.” citizens. We are here in Spangdahlem, Stuttgart, Grafenwoehr, Greg Evans—the first faculty and Vilsek in Germany; to Royal Air member in UMUC’s MBA program Europe so they have lived Force bases in the United Kingdom; in Europe—agrees, seeing himself as to U.S. bases in Italy; and downa pioneer not unlike the first faculty and worked overseas. range in Bahrain. Typically, he members sent to teach in post-war teaches two six-credit classes each Germany some 70 years ago.

They understand cultural “It was a Catch-22,” Evans said. term—then turns around and does “The director of graduate programs it again for another 11 weeks. differences. They undercouldn’t hire MBA faculty until we “The goal is to have different had enough students—but we instructors for all the MBA classes, stand cultural context. couldn’t enroll enough students to give the students different busiuntil we had more faculty.” ness perspectives,” he said They understand business Teaching is a second career for And he is no longer the lone faculEvans, who had worked in and ty member in the program. Now, because they are living it. around Chicago for everything from nine full-time and several adjunct facsmall dot-coms to Fortune 50 comulty support the growing program.

We have some robust panies. After earning an MBA from “It’s a dream job,” Evans said. “I DePaul University, he taught partlove the students, I love the support discussions because time for as many as seven universiI get from headquarters. My colties. When UMUC won the conleagues are some of the best and they bring so much to tract to offer an MBA program in brightest. Some are publishing in Europe five years ago, Evans became leading academic journals, [and] we the table. the first full-time faculty member. have retired CEOs sharing their Demand was high, he said, and experience. This is the best gig on —GREG EVANS “there were some growing pains. We the planet.” G

“

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 19 | ACHIEVER

ACHIEVER | 20 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF

TEACHING ONLINE

As the online “classroom” continues to evolve, so does our understanding of what it means to teach. Here, we talk with four UMUC professors who have mastered the craft.

BY GIL KLEIN PERRY BISHOP REMEMBERS WHEN HE WAS A FIFTH GRADER IN OTHELLO, Washington, a wheat-growing farm community of no more than 400 people, in the 1950s. His teacher was Mrs. Frazier, and he called her “progressive, even by today’s standards.”

Instead of just telling the students what they needed to know, she assembled several Number 10 cans in which they would plant different kinds of wheat. As it grew, they would measure it for math class, they would talk about the history of the wheat in history class, and they would incorporate art in creating posters to demonstrate what they had found for biology projects.

At the end of the year, that tiny class had won state-wide competitions, beating out the big city and suburban schools.

Now in his second decade teaching in UMUC’s communications department, Bishop is applying Mrs. Frazier’s teaching techniques to keep his students engaged online and his classes relevant well into the 21st century.

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 21 | ACHIEVER

because she couldn’t “take the crush of life in D.C. any more,” they asked if she would be Bishop said he sees his job as taking interested in teaching online for UMUC. “I students out of their comfort zones with theory said, ‘Sign me up.’”

Her new hometown and traditional academic approaches and was so small that it didn’t even have cable television, pushing them to understand and master and Drake Witz had to get a special satellite practical approaches that work in the real world. hookup so that she could continue to teach.

That was 14 years ago.

Now she is part of UMUC’s Executive Doctor of Management program, which offers students a pathway to a He doesn’t lecture them on the principles of public reladoctoral degree on a very demanding three-year timeline. tions. Instead, he has created a mock public relations firm An important component of a faculty member’s role is to called Parabolic Communications with its own website and serve as a guide, project manager, and even cheerleader for leadership team. At the beginning of the semester, every students who may be feeling overwhelmed. student in his graduate class in Public Relations “We know what the endpoint looks like, but [students] Techniques gets a letter congratulating him or her on have no idea,” said Drake Witz. “There’s a tendency to fall being hired as a junior associate assigned to one of backwards or get discouraged. . . . We have to say, ‘Yes, Parabolic’s clients, which Bishop picks from a list of 100 you are on track. Yes, you can finish this in six months. actual nonprofit organizations. That client becomes the Here’s what it’s going to take to get you there.’” student’s focus for the rest of the class.

Her students are mostly highly driven executives, and “I give them an event, and they have to incorporate the some have more industrial experience than she has. But she client into it,” Bishop said. “They have to write a speech and knows what it takes to get a doctorate, and that’s what press releases. They have to analyze that client’s social media they want to advance their careers platforms and report on how well or how poorly they do in Instead of weighing herself and her students down with extending their organization’s public relations footprint.” details, she said, she has become a “minimalist.”

Bishop designed the course so students can use informa “Every semester and every cohort will be different and tion from one assignment to the next. By the end of the have different needs,” she said. “I put in what is absolutely term, students have complete performance portfolios they required in the classroom, and I let the rest evolve organican show a prospective employer. cally, based on discussions or e-mails from students. . . .”

Bishop said he sees his job as taking students out of their She was teaching data analytics, for example, when comfort zones with theory and traditional academic she happened on an article about IoT—the “Internet approaches and pushing them to understand and master of Things”—and how monitors can now be placed in practical approaches that work in the real world. appliances, packaging, and more. The story mentioned For Laura Drake Witz, teaching online is more art than how a sensor could be put in psychotropic medication to science, and she is grateful for the opportunity it offers her inform a doctor if the patient had taken the medication to practice her craft from her home in Georgia, far from that day. the bustle of the Washington metropolitan area.

“We got a chance to talk about that as a class,” said “I was going to move [to Georgia] with no job at all,” Drake Witz. “What are the ethics involved? What are the she said. But when she told her colleagues she was leaving business implications? Is this just a safety issue? Is it a ACHIEVER | 22 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

political issue? If it is a political issue—which obviously it online teaching, the teacher needs to login and respond to is—then how does it relate to other types of data analytics what students say within a reasonable timeframe. That’s that we have been talking about?” the only way to stay relevant.”

While she might never have anticipated that discussion, Varsalone said he believes that project-based learning, Drake Witz said, it turned out to be an important part of the where students are assigned real-world projects rather than class because it opened students’ minds to new applications of research papers, is the future of online education—and data analytics, as well as their potential consequences.

UMUC is poised to be a leader.

Another veteran faculty member, Jesse Varsalone, has “With cybersecurity, writing a paper may not be as helptaught for 20 years total, 10 of them online, and often ful for some of our students who are doing hands-on work draws on his experience in face-to-face classes for new on routers and switches and computers,” said Varsalone. “I strategies in the online environment. don’t use any books. All of the resources I need are on the A full-time collegiate associate professor in the computer web. By the time a book is printed, the cybersecurity stuff networks and cybersecurity program, Varsalone is known is often already out of date.” for his creativity in designing real-time, scenario-based While some criticize online learning because faculty computer lab experiments that help keep students current members cannot see firsthand which students are attentive, on strategies to combat ever-evolving cyber threats.

Varsalone said that online platforms offer access to analyt He may be best known, though, for leading UMUC’s ics that may actually be better indicators of what students prize-winning competitive cybersecurity team, the Cyber have studied and learned.

Padawans. And he is currently a student himself, pursuing “I have a virtual grade book now,” he said. “I know who a Doctor of Management at UMUC. hasn’t turned in [an assignment] or who may not have con Those different pursuits add up to a broad perspective tributed to class discussions. I have hard numbers on who on what works in the online classroom. discussed what. I can tell you how many times each student “The biggest thing that students want in online instruclogged in. I can tell you how many assignments were missed tion is not really that different from what they want from and how many discussion posts they made and read.” face-to-face classes,” Varsalone said. “They want to be As a tangential benefit, Varsalone pointed out that heard, and they want to feel that they are important.” online teaching opens academia to a new type of teacher Those who are heard perform better, which is why, in this who may bring new and different skill sets to the online age of social media and constant connectivity, Varsalone classroom. Teaching face-to-face, he said, you often have emphasizes rapid responses to all student queries. to be a storyteller, a people person comfortable performing “If students e-mail me, I try to get back to them in five minutes or less,” he said— even if that means just sending a message that We know what the endpoint looks like, but says, “I am away from my desk; as [students] have no idea. We have to say, ̒Yes, you soon as I get back, I will respond.” are on track. Here’s what it’s going to take to get “With face-toface teaching, I go you there.’ in the classroom, say what I need to —LAURA DRAKE WITZ say, and then see [the students] next time,” he said. “But with

“

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 23 | ACHIEVER

“You have video games being developed where people can immerse themselves in scenarios about To be an effective instructor, I try to moving materials and make hands-on decisions,” he personalize everything in the course. I also send said. “They make mistakes.

They learn from those students job advertisements that are pertinent mistakes. When they get out in the real world and to their skills and the course’s subjects, such start managing millions of dollars in inventory, as purchasing, materials management, and it helps them avoid making mistakes.” supply chain management.

But no matter how sophisticated technology

—JAMES BRYANT becomes, he said, the faculty member will always play a critical role, serving as instructor, mentor, and guide.

“To be an effective instructor, I try to personalize in front of a class, and even an actor. That can scare off everything in the course by having an opening webinar some highly qualified people. with the students during the first week of class,” said Online, most classes are asynchronous, so teachers need Bryant. “I also send students job advertisements that not respond in realtime and can think their responses are pertinent to their skills and the course’s subjects, through more carefully. Also, online instruction can such as purchasing, materials management, and supply open teaching roles to professionals with other jobs and chain management.” responsibilities.

“We used to lose faculty members based on what was He encourages his students to participate in profeshappening in their lives,” said Varsalone. “Online faculty sional organizations—such as the National Contract don’t have to stop [teaching] because they want to attend Management Association (NCMA) and Project their child’s after-school activities during the week.”

Management Professionals (PMP)—that can help Not all challenges have to be addressed in the online enhance their skill sets while at the same time offering classroom, Varsalone said, recommending that students networking opportunities that can yield long term who lack the self-discipline or technical know-how to professional benefits. succeed in an online environment first take courses at a And perhaps most important, he makes himself availcommunity college. able online and by telephone so that when students have “[Attending a] community college … can be extremely questions, someone is ready and willing to answer them. beneficial for a student transitioning to an online pro “I give [students] access to me at any time except from gram,” he said. “If you get an associate’s degree or if you 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” said Bryant, adding that he can’t [serve] in the military, then you have proven that you are stand for a student to get stuck. “I tell them, ‘If you get self-motivated and have a good chance of [success].” stuck, I don’t hold it against you. . . . Call me, and I James Bryant, who served as a U.S. Air Force logistics will walk you through the material.’ officer for 17 years, now teaches in UMUC’s acquisition “I have one-on-one calls with students on a plethora and supply chain management program. He believes that of subjects ranging from how to [structure] their résumés textbooks are headed for obsolescence, and instead recomto difficulties they are having in a particular course. mends leveraging video game technology in the online Engagement at all levels with each student helps make classroom—something the U.S. military has been experithem successful—and [represents] a solid testimony menting with for some 20 years. for UMUC.” G

“

ACHIEVER | 24 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

CLASS NOTES

Thomas “Tim” Hutchins ’81 & ’97

Timothy L. Anderson ’90

Barstow, Maryland, filed his candidacy for Second District Commissioner. He most recently served as director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and deputy chief of staff for Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

Washington, D.C., is president and CEO of the Government Printing Office Federal Credit Union. The African American Credit Union Corporation recently elected him to another term as chairman of its Board of Directors.

Larry Reynolds ’87

Karin McQuade ’90 & ’99

Providence Forge, Virginia, and his wife, Patricia, opened Gracefield Hall Bed and Breakfast in their home, a historically accurate re-creation of an 18th-century

Millersville, Maryland, was appointed as the new county controller for Anne Arundel County by County Executive Steve Schuh. As controller, McQuade will lead the Office of Finance, which collects tax revenues, keeps track of expenditures, issues debt, and meets with bond ratings agencies.

Johnny Overcast ’90

Central Virginia colonial plantation house. Reynolds reports that, rather than mostly involving cooking breakfast and making beds, he actually used his UMUC degree in business management to establish a limited liability company (LLC) licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia; lease part of the house to the company; set up a chart of accounts and accounting records; and market the business through print and social media, via the web (see www.gracefieldhallbnb. com), and through community involvement. He reports that research on the colonial Virginia architecture spanned some 20 years, while the state and county permitting process and setup of the business took more than six months.

Reynolds serves on the board of directors for the New Kent County Chamber of Commerce.

Edward Bergin ’88

Millersville, Maryland, was selected as a finalist in the search for Fort Collins’ new city police chief. He currently serves as bureau commander of patrol for the Anne Arundel County Police Department.

Washington, D.C., was recently honored with a FedScoop 50 Award for industry leadership. Overcast is the senior director of government sales at Samsung Electronics America. Samsung credits him with being instrumental in “changing the way the U.S. Department of Defense and civilian agencies do business, execute their missions, and provide services to the citizenry.”

Michael Nemzek ’91

Redwood City, California, was appointed as MedGenome’s chief commercial officer.

He has held executive senior leadership team positions in both public companies and a number of private companies that have become successful public companies by merger and acquisition.

Madeleine Romeyer Dherbey ’92 & ’96

Millwood, Virginia, currently teaches for Loudoun County Public Schools. Her first novel, The Fortress: A Story of the French Resistance (Freedom Forge Press, 2018),

was published on June 6 and focuses on the conflict in the French Vercors where she grew up. The story is inspired by her own family history, examines the forces that conspire to tear a nation apart, and honors those who sacrifice their lives to keep it whole. The book is available on Amazon.com and FreedomForgePress.com.

Cynthia Davis ’94 & ’08

Clinton, Maryland, was named Melwood’s vice president of external affairs. Davis is a senior level development executive with nearly 20 years of experience representing and managing leading humanitarian organizations and engaging multifaceted corporate partnerships.

Eileen Mercilliott ’95

Clarksville, Maryland, was promoted to vice president of product management at OptioLabs. In her new role, she will be responsible for driving product vision and delivery of OptioLabs’ innovative suite of mobile security products.

Rosita Santos Wright ’97

Guam, retired January 11, 2018, from her position as financial management director for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas following a 51-year career.

Gloria Thornwell (Brooks) ’97

Washington, D.C., has been selected to join the board of The Training Source, Inc. Thornwell is the founder and CEO of BluPrint, LLC., a leader in delivering human capital strategies and action plans that help clients meet their business objectives.

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 25 | ACHIEVER

CLASS NOTES

Elizabeth “Betsy” Knorr ’99

Chatham, Massachusetts, was named chief operating officer by HCIM. Catherine Kuenzel ’99

Annapolis, Maryland, joined Microsoft as vice president of enterprise services for the company’s public sector business in the Americas.

Timothy R. Petty ’99

Washington, D.C., was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as assistant secretary for water and science at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where he will be responsible for overseeing the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Caragh Glenn Fay ’02

Mount Airy, Maryland, received the David S. Shrager President’s Award from the American Association for Justice (AAJ) in recognition of her perseverance in pursuing justice for victims of foreign state sponsored terrorism.

Melissa Bard ’03

Long Beach, California, was named vice chancellor for human resources for the California State University System in Long Beach.

Rebecca Campbell (Younger) ’03

Hanford, California, was recenly appointed as King’s County Administrative Officer (CAO) in California. She is the fourth CAO in King’s County history and will oversee an annual budget of $330 million and a staff of 1,550. She attended UMUC while stationed overseas in the Navy.

Lawrence Priebe ’03

Crofton, Maryland, was named safety and quality control director at Keen Compressed Gas Co. He will be responsible for overseeing the safety and quality of Keen’s operations, including training,

policy development, and compliance objectives for the company.

Jerry Ford Jr. ’05

Blacksburg, Virginia, was recently named to Blacksburg’s Town Council, replacing former Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith.

Nicole Edmund ’06

Dallas, Texas, was selected by Meeting Professionals International to lead the association’s membership and chapter operations teams as vice president of community.

Kevin Lovell ’07

Gainesville, Virginia, joined Stanley Consultants as a senior project manager.

He retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the Chicago District Deputy Commander following a 21-year career.

Tiffany Tremont ’07

San Antonio, Texas, was appointed to the Texas State Technical College System Board Of Regents. She is founder, president, and CEO of Silotech Group, Inc.; a former vice president of the Young Alamo AFCEANs Program, a chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA); and former president of the National Association for Female Executives San Antonio.

Christy Lombardi ’08 & ’15

Waldorf, Maryland, serves as executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the Community Bank of the Chesapeake. She recently joined the College of Southern Maryland Foundation Board, a charitable organization and the fundraising arm of the College of Southern Maryland.

Leigh Goff ’09

Annapolis, Maryland, published her second young adult novel, Bewitching Hannah (Mirror World Publishing, 2017),

ACHIEVER | 26 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

set in her hometown. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and a volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation– Greater Chesapeake Chapter.

Corren Johnson ’09

Gwynn Oak, Maryland, was named Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) District 5 Engineer for Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary’s counties.

William Meekins ’09

Delmar, Maryland, was nominated as Educator of the Year in Worcester County, Maryland. Meekins is in his 10th year as Snow Hill High School’s Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps instructor.

Amalia Lopez ’10

Lindsay, California, is a curriculum and instruction specialist and TSL project manager for Lindsay Unified School District in California. She was published in Beyond Reform: Systemic Shifts Toward Personalized Learning (Marzano Research, 2017), by the Lindsay Unified School District. The book outlines how the school district—which faces the challenge of meeting the needs of increasingly diverse student populations— took action to improve student learning by shifting from a traditional, time-based education system to a learner-centered, performance-based system.

Mickey Vollmer ’10

Chesapeake, Virginia, was named vice president and chief information officer

at ABNB Federal Credit Union. In addition to an MBA and MS in Information Technology from UMUC, Vollmer holds a BS from Old Dominion University and an engineering degree from Tidewater Community College.

Christopher Murtha ’11

Wilmington, Delaware, was announced as the new deputy director of the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Bruce Beam ’13 & 16

Clearwater, Florida, was appointed director of infrastructure and security by (ISC)². Beam has more than 20 years of experience leading IT/ICT and security teams for large enterprises and the U.S. Navy. In his new position, he will lead all aspects of (ISC)²’s global IT/ICT and cybersecurity operations.

Jack Cruse ’13

Richmond, Indiana, was appointed as the city of Richmond’s director of infrastructure and development. He will oversee the offices of public works and engineering, planning and zoning, and permits and inspections.

Joseph Nairn ’13

Fairport, New York, was named the president of Rural Regional College of Northern Pennsylvania. Nairn was previously the chief advancement officer at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, New York.

Ann Killen ’14

Branchport, New York, was named vice president of academic affairs at New York Chiropractic College.

Heidi Falter ’15

Catonsville, Maryland, was chosen as one of Folio Magazine’s Top Women in Media for 2017 in the Rising Stars category.

Sara Hollands ’15

Hampstead, Maryland, joined the Baltimore-based marketing agency MGH as a digital analyst. In her new position, Hollands will help manage campaigns for the agency’s paid search accounts.

Saritha Jones ’15

Baltimore, Maryland, is an executive administrative assistant in the Carey School of Law for the University of Baltimore. She won the $2,000 James T. Hill Scholarship at the university’s recent employee recognition luncheon.

Shy-Asia Andrews-Strawther ’16

Owings Mills, Maryland, joined MGH, a Baltimore-based advertising and marketing agency, as an associate digital analyst.

Robert J. Miller ’16

Beltsville, Maryland, was hired as Parson’s director of business development for the

company’s federal business unit’s security and intelligence division. Miller brings more than 16 years of experience to the position.

Rrezarta Sopa ’16

Frederick, Maryland, earned her BS in Accounting from UMUC and was hired

by LSWG CPAs as a staff accountant.

Justin Sullivan ’16

Pensacola, Florida, received the Military Times 2017 Sailor of the Year Award. Earlier in his career, while stationed in Naples, Italy, he was awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal for volunteering more than 1,400 hours coaching the Naples Tiger Sharks Swim Team. He has subsequently received two President’s Volunteer Service Awards—one bronze, one silver—and has been granted the Navy League’s Outstanding Service Member Award. G

Caprice Smith ’08

Owings Mills, Maryland, is the host of Women Uncuffed TV, a YouTubebased show that originated on Women’s Broadcast Television Network in 2017.

A retired Baltimore City Police Special Investigations Detective, she is the co-owner with her husband of Puff & Quill Smokery, an upscale cigar lounge, and an adjunct professor at Stevenson University. She was awarded the national titles of Mrs. Corporate America 2014 and Ambassador 2015 and was named Baltimore Times Indie Entrepreneur of The Week, a Black Wall Street Honoree, and among Baltimore’s Best. She received a Top 100 Minority Business award for the mid-Atlantic region from the Center for Business Inclusion and Diversity in 2010. An author and motivational speaker, she has been interviewed on local radio and television and has appeared on national shows including Dr. Oz, The Match Game, and The Chew.

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 27 | ACHIEVER

FACULTY KUDOS

Kevin Adams, who teaches information technology and systems engineering courses in The Graduate School, was selected as the 2018 Textbook Excellence Award Winner by the Textbook and Academic Authors Association for his book, co-authored with Patrick T. Hester, Systemic Decision Making: Fundamentals for Addressing Problems and Messes, 2nd Ed. (Springer, 2017). The award recognizes excellence in current textbooks and learning materials.

Eric Brandenburg, who teaches in the computer information systems and technology department in The Undergraduate School, recently returned from South Africa where he tested different cellular intercept equipment as a means of detecting and locating rhinoceros poachers in Kruger National Park.

Tesema Chekol, who teaches natural sciences in The Undergraduate School, published (with Z. F. Dembek and A. Wu), “Best Practice Assessment of Disease Modeling for Infectious Disease Outbreaks,” in the May 8 issue of Epidemiology and Infection.

Kay Edwards, who teaches in the doctoral

program for The Graduate School, published (with C. A. Deakyne, M. PonikvarSvet, and J. F. Liebman) “The Existence of Argon Difluoride: Is There Any Reason for Optimism?” in the International Journal of Chemical Modeling (Vol. 8, Nos. 3–4).

Emma Garrison-Alexander, vice dean for cybersecurity in The Graduate School, received the 2018 People’s Choice Award in Cybersecurity from the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc., based on a vote of professionals in the industry.

Dr. Warna Gillies, program chair in the

Master of Arts in Teaching program in The Graduate School, was accepted as a Fulbright Specialist on February 24, 2017, and will appear on the roster of specialists for three years.

Robert Goodwin, who teaches in the MBA

program for the Graduate School, served as a member of the evaluation team from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education that reviewed the programs of Kutztown University, in Pennsylvania, March 5–8, 2018.

Dan Grosse, who teaches in the envi-

ronmental management program in The Graduate School, presented on oyster farming at the Profiting From a Few Acres— Small Farms Conference, March 6, 2018, at Delaware State University.

Douglas Harrison, associate dean in The

Graduate School, presented “The Integrity Values Matrix: A Framework for Infusing Academic Integrity Across the Curriculum” and—with Gretchen Jones and Beth Mulherrin, of The Undergraduate School— “(Re)Creating a Culture of Integrity at UMUC” at the International Conference on Academic Integrity, March 2–4, 2018, in Richmond, Virginia.

Mansur Hasib, program chair for cybersecurity in The Graduate School, presented “Cybersecurity Leadership as Organizational Innovation Engine,” at Innovations 2018, the conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College, March 18–21, 2018, in Washington, D.C. He presented “How to Build a Cybersecurity Culture” at the Federal Information Systems Security Educators’ Association 2018 Conference, March 14–15, 2018, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He presented “Cybersecurity as People Powered Perpetual Innovation” at ITNG 2018, the 15th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, April 16–18, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bert Jarreau, who teaches for The Graduate School overseas in the MBA program, presented (with Saad Laraqui) “Applying Theory to Understand How Multinational Firms Address Brexit,”

ACHIEVER | 28 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

at the 45th Academy of International Business (UK and Ireland Chapter) Annual Conference, April 12–14, 2018, at the University of Birmingham, in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Diane O'Leary, who teaches philosophy

in The Undergraduate School, published “Why Bioethics Should Be Concerned with Medically Unexplained Symptoms,” in the Journal of American Bioethics (Vol. 18, No. 5), May 2018. She has delivered lectures at the International Congress on Women’s Health Issues, at the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, in the U.K. House of Lords, and has presented to the UN Special Rapporteur on Health and Human Rights. In March and April 2018, she was a Fellow at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, where she prepared an article on a new diagnostic construct for unexplained and psychogenic symptoms, called “bodily stress syndrome.” The article appears in a June 2018 special issue on scientific integrity of the Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry. She is now working on a book, entitled ‘All in Your Head’: How Medicine’s Best Kept Secret Threatens Us All.

Mitchell Marovitz, who teaches in the public

relations program in The Graduate School, has been selected as chair of the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB), which oversees the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) and Accredited in Public Relations and Military Communication (APR+M) certifications, as well as the Certificate in Principles of Public Relations program.

Kathleen Sindell, who chairs the Certified Financial Planner program in The Undergraduate School, received the 2017 Norma Severns Leadership Award from the Financial Planning Association, National Capital Area. The award is presented annually to an individual who displays extraordinary efforts to advocate for ethical and

objective financial planning and to advance the FPANCA’s mission. Sindell has been a board member and co-chair of the association for more than seven years and is the author of Social Security: Maximize Your Benefits, 2nd Ed. (GCSRi, 2016).

Thomas Underhill, who teaches in the cloud

computing architecture program in The Graduate School, was appointed to the

Board of Advisors for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California, Riverside.

Felix Uribe, who teaches in the computer information systems and technology department in The Undergraduate School, presented on the NIST Risk Management Framework, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and the Internet of Things

(IoT) at the Second Digital Forensic and Cybersecurity Conference in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, May 17–20, 2018, and at two universities in Santo Domingo.

Richard White, who teaches in the com-

puter information systems and technology department in The Undergraduate School, published Cybercrime: The Madness Behind the Methods (CreateSpace, 2018). G

ARE YOU READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE? As part of our dedicated team of scholar-practitioners, your innovation and inspiration would help provide our students with an exceptional learning experience.

Long recognized as a pioneer in online instruction, UMUC is transforming the field on a global scale, creating a powerful new model for adult education.

UMUC offers competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits including healthcare, tuition remission, and a generous leave policy for qualifying positions.

“UMUC got me to where I am today. The professors are knowledgeable, they work in the industry, and they help you with your career.”

CONRAD SHAND

University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is an equal opportunity employer.

BS, CYBERSECURITY

MADE FOR YOU

Visit umuc.edu/careers to join our team

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 29 | ACHIEVER

FACULTY KUDOS

CONTINUED

ON THE COVER

Seven Pioneers of Maryland Higher Education

BY MIELLYN BARROWS

They came at a moment’s notice, some given just a week to settle their affairs and leave for a one-year teaching contract in Allied-occupied Germany.

In the fall of 1949, seven faculty members ventured out to open an overseas education program, then called the University of Maryland European Command College of Special and Continuation Studies. They were going to bring education to the troops Young newlyweds Dr. Phyllis Sparks (economics) and David Sparks (history) were enticed by the prospect of spending a honeymoon year teaching in Europe. Lyle Mayer had taught for the University of Maryland at the Pentagon as part of the Speech and Dramatic Art Department (then chaired by Ray Ehrensberger, who would later become chancellor of UMUC)

ACHIEVER | 30 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Believed to have been taken on October 4, 1949— the day after their arrival—on the sun terrace outside the famed Berchtesgadener Hof hotel in Berchtesgaden, Germany, this photo shows the first seven University of Maryland faculty members to travel overseas to teach U.S. troops stationed in post-war Europe. The Berchtesgadener Hof— a favorite of Nazi dignitaries—was taken over by the U.S. Army in 1945. (Standing, left to right) Lyle V. Mayer, assistant professor of speech; David S. Sparks, assistant professor of history; Warren L. Strausbaugh, assistant professor of speech; and Martin W. Moser, lecturer in government and politics. (Seated, left to right) Dr. Bruce L. Melvin, associate professor of sociology; Dr. Phyllis B. Sparks, assistant professor of economics; and Dr. Verne E. Chatelain, associate professor of history.

along with Warren L. Strausbaugh, who went on to become department dean. Former chief historian for the National Park Service Dr. Verne Chatelain joined from the history department. Martin W. Moser, government and politics lecturer—later rumored to be a CIA operative—and sociologist Dr. Bruce L. Melvin rounded out the original seven.

They met in Frankfurt, attended a conference in Berchtesgaden, and then deployed to their posts at six different American military bases in Germany. From there, they rotated every eight weeks, bringing a series of courses to troops in each location.

David Sparks was the program’s provisional administrator and a future vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Maryland. He went overseas with the caveat that if fewer than 300 students enrolled, he was to cancel the program and send everyone home. More than 1,800 signed up.

They weren’t just wanted; they were needed.

That inaugural year—and the seven pioneers who led it—laid the groundwork for what is now University of Maryland University College, a state university with a truly global footprint. To this day the institution is guided by its mission of bringing education within reach for adult students and military personnel in Maryland, across the country, and around the world.

GIVE AND ALSO RECEIVE! Your gift can have an impact by allowing University of Maryland University College (UMUC) to offer scholarships to deserving students and provide them with the highest level of academic quality and innovation. At the same time, you can also receive guaranteed annual income—from the same gift—when it is made in the form of a CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY. This information does not constitute tax advice. Please consult your tax and/or financial advisor for information regarding the tax implications of gifts to UMUC.

Contact one of us today to learn more. dawn.draayer@umuc.edu dharma.selvanayagam@umuc.edu

MADE FOR YOU

Call 301-985-7110 or visit UMUC.EDU/IMPACT

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 31 | ACHIEVER

Your UMUC Alumni Network Join a community that is more than 215,000 and growing In today’s global economy, networking is an essential tool for every professional. And that’s where the UMUC Alumni Association comes in. Tap into the power of your alumni community around the globe!

What You Gain No matter where you are in your career—advancing within your current organization, transitioning to a new field, making plans to start or expand a business, or wrapping up active-duty service and seeking civilian employment—the UMUC Alumni Association can help you broaden your professional horizons.

As part of our vast and growing network, you have access to professionals with similar goals and career aspirations—all across the nation and in more than 115 countries.

Get Connected . . . Stay Connected www.facebook.com/umucalumni linkd.in/1pRvymv

The UMUC Alumni Association can help you by providing exclusive access to the following: •

Networking opportunities

•

Career resources

• Mentoring •

Alumni benefits and discounts

www.twitter.com/umucalumni

CONNECTING ALUMNI | BUILDING NETWORKS | STRENGTHENING UMUC 301-985-7140 • 800-888-8682 • alumnirelations@umuc.edu ACHIEVER | 32 | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Get involved by joining My Volunteer Program •

Have fun and socialize

•

Grow your professional network

•

Gain new skills

•

Identify new talent you wish to work with

You Gain More When You Give UMUC alumni like you consistently make valuable contributions to the industries and communities in which they work and live.

Through My Volunteer Program, you can also give back to the university that nurtured your development in a very personal way.

You can choose from six ways to serve as a volunteer: •

Career Mentor Volunteers

•

Event Volunteers

•

Social Media Ambassador Volunteers

•

Headhunter Volunteers

•

Industry Expert Volunteers

•

Referral Volunteers

Join My Volunteer Program today!

umucconnect.org/mvp umucconnect.org GET CONNECTED TODAY!

WWW.UMUC.EDU | 33 | ACHIEVER

NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE

3501 University Boulevard East Adelphi, MD 20783-8003 800-888-UMUC (8682) umuc.edu

PAID UMUC

A NEW LOOK. A TRUSTED TRADITION. We look pretty different these days and wanted to let you know why. We�re working hard to better communicate our commitment to making higher education available and achievable for anyone, anywhere. We have a proud tradition of fulfilling that commitment through continuous innovation and our unwavering pledge to put students first.

It�s why we�ve grown to become the largest online state university in the United States.

There�s no distance we won�t go to help working adults like you succeed. Seventy years ago, that meant sending professors to teach servicemembers at military installations overseas. Today, it means offering online programs backed by the reputation of the University System of Maryland to help you build the career and life you�ve always imagined. While our look may have changed, what we�re made for hasn�t. See for yourself at umuc.edu.